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Oh, and one more thing. I called Jim Edmonds earlier (for some reason he only picks up right before it goes to voicemail). He told me he wanted me to tell you guys that he has something to come clean about as well. For his first 8 years in the majors he thought a fly ball to the outfield was an out if it was caught while diving.

I for one am actually sort of impressed to finally see a player with the balls to just go for the gusto and make no bones about his intentions to cheat for money. That or a lack of enough intelligence to cover his tracks properly. One or the other. But still.

When did that happen? Has someone that's not the frigging *Daily News* independently confirmed the story yet? Their coverage of the steroid issue in baseball to-date has been embarrassing, sub-Duranty-level crap.

When did that happen? Has someone that's not the frigging *Daily News* independently confirmed the story yet? Their coverage of the steroid issue in baseball to-date has been embarrassing, sub-Duranty-level crap.

He was probably referring to the "did he use PEDs" aspect, which Cabrera has admitted to.

BTW, is/should there be any additional punishment in store for Melky if this story proves to be true? I'm inclined to say that attempting to scam the arbitration should be a punishable offense in itself, assuming there's proof of it. It's one thing to present an insufficient defense and be ruled against, quite another to present fabricated evidence.

I think the overlooked thing on this is that a player failed a drug test and a government agent is now investigating where he got it. If that doesn't pull a chill down the union's spine I don't know what is.

When a union has a significant number of its members operating in a manner similar to an organized crime syndicate, eventually they're going to attract the attention of the feds. If they really thought otherwise, that they were going to be able to get away with this kind of stuff forever, then they're pretty freaking stupid.

Oh, I get it now, you hate WRINKLED pants. Well I don’t want to too much information your way at once but they have invented this device that “irons” out wrinkles, it’s called an Iron Link. Another invention that has taken place are wrinkle free pants, but lets work on one thing at a time.

“Juan Nunez is NOT a salaried employee of ACES and does NOT receive the benefits that all ACES employees receive,” Levinson said. “Most importantly, any and all calls, texts and emails that he sends come from his own PERSONAL devices (BlackBerry).”

How is this the "most important" thing? I suppose these are both good facts for the Levinsons from a legal perspective, but neither proves anything.

I have in fact tasted surstromming, and I didn't think it was terrible. It was covered in sour cream and raw red onions, which helped, and we chased it with aquavit, which also helped. Some of the people I tried it with retched and couldn't even put it in their mouths. It was a funny scene. I actually finished my portion with a smile. This all happened at a restaurant where I was working, the surstromming was brought in by a Swedish cook who himself couldn't bare to smell it. Later in the week one of the owners put it on a pizza that we served to Iron Chef Morimoto, who was dining there, and he reportedly enjoyed it. That sounds like a joke but it isn't.

I've never tried the Icelandic rancid shark dish (Hakarl) but that sounds like another level of disgusting.

When a union has a significant number of its members operating in a manner similar to an organized crime syndicate, eventually they're going to attract the attention of the feds. If they really thought otherwise, that they were going to be able to get away with this kind of stuff forever, then they're pretty freaking stupid.

It doesn't seem particularly surprising to me either. These are controlled substances after all, whatever the agreement between MLB and the MLBPA. Someone's getting this stuff for these guys, I doubt very much Melky Cabrera enters the United States every year with eight months worth of synthetic testosterone stuffed down his pants. Whoever that is is trafficking in controlled substances, whatever one thinks of the law.

Later in the week one of the owners put it on a pizza that we served to Iron Chef Morimoto, who was dining there, and he reportedly enjoyed it.

On a pizza? Sacrilege!

I kind of wonder if surströmming ever was anything more than a macho trip for northerners. If it was used to avoid starvation, wouldn't the season for it have been in the middle of the winter like lutfisk instead of August-September when there's plenty of palatable foodstuffs around?

The other important event on the calendar in northern Sweden is the elk hunt in late autumn, so maybe a minor macho trip before the big one.

"A common myth tells that the dish originated with Swedish sailors in the 16th century. The story goes that they only had half the amount of salt needed to keep their fish fresh, so it began to rot. The sailors came across some Finnish islanders and decided to con them by selling the rotten fish to them. The Finns bought it and the sailors went away. A year later the Swedish sailors returned to the island and the locals asked if they had more rotten fish. The sailors decided to try it themselves, liked it and made more."

"In 1981 a German landlord evicted a tenant without notice after the tenant spread surströmming brine in the apartment building's staircase. When the landlord was taken to court, the court ruled that the termination was justified when the landlord's party demonstrated their case by opening a can inside the courtroom. The court concluded that it "had convinced itself that the disgusting smell of the fish brine far exceeded the degree that fellow-tenants in the building could be expected to tolerate."[8]"

It doesn't seem particularly surprising to me either. These are controlled substances after all, whatever the agreement between MLB and the MLBPA. Someone's getting this stuff for these guys, I doubt very much Melky Cabrera enters the United States every year with eight months worth of synthetic testosterone stuffed down his pants. Whoever that is is trafficking in controlled substances, whatever one thinks of the law.

And it hardly needs to be said that the Dominican Republic is one of the biggest sources of the problem. It's only a matter of time before eventually the feds are going to find out what person or people are behind this little Dominican mafia-style drug trafficking outfit operating within baseball, and when they finally get busted, they're going to be looking at big-time prison sentences.

As long as we're sharing: I am unacceptable in most social settings* (and SoSHal ones, at least I was at one point). Though, honestly, ever since that stretch where we had to re-register on a daily basis, it's no guarantee I'm at the office when I'm posting under this particular handle.